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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10

2. Objections of the South

2. Objections of the South.

The leading idea of the Weldcum-Fitzgerald ministry is "that the Native Difficulty is the school of New Zealand statesmen," and that the administration of native affairs having been conceded by the Home Government at the request of the South, the South must be responsible for the cost of the experiment, whether the result be peace or long protracted war.

The settlers of the Southern Island utterly repudiate this notion. Their leading members, in the recent debate in the Assembly on the question of separation, distinctly intimated that they should support the Weld government, simply and only because the South had pledged itself to an expenditure of three millions; but that as soon as the balance of £602,623, then unissued, was expended, and any further demands were made, there would be no alternative but separation.

Mr. Crosbie Ward, the proprietor of the Lyttleton Times, and member or Lyttleton, also gave notice that the value of all native land confiscated in the North through the war, ought to be treated as an asset, and charged in account as between North and South! Indeed, a meeting of the Southern members was held, in which it was agreed to page 27 resist all further schemes of taxation until the cost of the war had been actually apportioned to the complete satisfaction of the South.*

These proceedings can only have one meaning, viz. that the cost of all farther native wars, necessary or unnecessary, must, so far as the South is concerned, be provided for by confiscation out of Northern lands, and the South to have the power of making war or peace. They can compel the North to fight, whether they will or no; and charge them with all the expenditure. The land fond of the South, in actual possession, is sacred for purposes of local improvement; but the land fund of the North, when acquired, must defray the entire cost of its acquisition. Roads and bridges in that region, whether for Europeans or natives, being entirely unnecessary!

Again, the Provincial Council of the province of Otago, so long back as November, 1864,. passed resolutions in which they condemn the native war, and assert that they have no more direct interest therein than any other province of the British empire; and they further declare "that unless some measures can be taken which shall lead to the early termination of the war, on terms consistent with the honor of the colony, and the safety of the Northern settlement; the province of Otago will endeavor to obtain the concurrence of the other provinces of the Middle Island, in a financial and political separation of the two principal islands of New Zealand."

In the same province also, a league has been formed for the express purpose of effecting the same object, not merely on account of the native difficulty, but because the Middle Island has within itself all the materials necessary for the formation of a distinct and independent colony.

page 28
Their manifesto declares—
"That the size of the Middle Island fully justifies the desire to convert it into a distinct colony. The area of the Middle Island, with out including Stewart's Island, is 44,500 square miles, whilst that of the under mentioned colonies is only as follows:—
New Brunswick 27,704 square miles.
Nova Scotia and Cape Breton 18,742 square miles.
Prince Edward's Island 2,131 square miles.
Newfoundland 36,300 square miles.
Jamaica, the largest colony of the West Indies 6,400 square miles.
Trinidad 2,400 square miles.
Van Dieman's Land 21,000 square miles.

"But the comparison of the size of New Zealand with other colonies becomes yet stronger when its peculiarly long and narrow shape is taken into consideration. From the northernmost point of the North Island to the southernmost point of the Middle Island the length is 1,100 miles, a longer distance than that between any two points in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, or between those of Victoria and South Australia. The length and narrowness of New Zealand make its government from any one spot more difficult than that of other colonies possessing many times its area. The Middle Island alone is 430 miles in length from point to point, and it covers a more extensive sea-board than the two colonies of Victoria and New South "Wales conjoined. Its isolation should also be considered, as for a similar reason the Home Government consented to Tasmania being separated from New South Wales, although but half the size of the Middle Island, and containing at the time of the separation a population of only 12,643 inhabitants, and a revenue of £6,866 1s. 9d.

"In point of resources, the Middle Island is fully qualified to become a separate colony. A comparison of the position of Port Phillip, since named Victoria, when it was allowed to separate from New South Wales, with that of the Middle Island, will show that the latter is justified in asking for the responsibilities of a separate Government.

* See Postscript.

New Zealand Papers, February 7th, 1865, p. 209.